With a majority of the population still unbanked, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Central Bank of the Philippines) has decided to turn its eyes on the advancements in the financial technology sector in their implications in the banking industry in general.
The FinTech industry is a bustling one with the fine integration of the tech and financial sectors and now a multi-billion US dollar industry worldwide with startups sprouting madly in the US, Europe, and of course in the Asia Pacific.
Organisations centered on money-related innovation are by and large new companies established with the purpose for upsetting occupant budgetary frameworks and enterprises that depend less on technology like financial tracking programs and other related software.
However, the banking regulators are very skeptical with regard to the progression of FinTech since such software-based businesses can pose a great threat to these companies in terms of cyber security. Since Bitcoin is open source, the BSP is worried that unregulated digital money is an easy channel for illegal financial transactions. This is, of course, a classic move of the banking industry to propose proper regulation and in extension, cryptocurrency monitoring.
“One of the challenges we’re looking into right now is the FinTech kind of solutions because it’s a game-changing tool. It changed the business model of banks in payments and trade. We want to understand how these things work. The Blockchain technology is potentially disruptive, the engine of Bitcoin,” stated BSP Deputy Governor Nestor A. Espenilla Jr.
Despite the slight reluctance of adoption from a regulators’ view, BSP Governor Amando M. Tetangco Jr. had stated in a speech recently,
“Those of us in Generation X may find that to be a contradiction because we grew up not equating ‘service’ with ‘gadgets’. Yet, this is precisely the world of the ‘millennials’ who capture thoughts and experiences in gigabytes. ATMs are no longer just cash-dispensing machines since the networks offer a full range of consumer and corporate banking services. The widespread use of e-money means that payment systems can clear and settle the most retail of transactions without cash physically moving from wallet to wallet.”
The BSP warns that the local current regulatory system does not recognise Bitcoin and does not provide protection for its users.
Learn more about the rapid development of the Bitcoin Asia situation here at Coin News.
